Runes and Relics

by Kay L. Ling

  Copyright © 2017 by Kay L. Ling

  All rights reserved.

  * * *

  No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.

  Contents

  Chapter 1

  Chapter 2

  Chapter 3

  Chapter 4

  Chapter 5

  Chapter 6

  Chapter 7

  Chapter 8

  Chapter 9

  Chapter 10

  Chapter 11

  Chapter 12

  Chapter 13

  Chapter 14

  Chapter 15

  Chapter 16

  Chapter 17

  Chapter 18

  Chapter 19

  Chapter 20

  Chapter 21

  Chapter 22

  Chapter 23

  Chapter 24

  Chapter 25

  Chapter 26

  Chapter 27

  Chapter 28

  Chapter 29

  Chapter 30

  Chapter 31

  Chapter 32

  Chapter 33

  Chapter 34

  Chapter 35

  Chapter 36

  Chapter 37

  Chapter 38

  A Note From the Author

  Acknowledgments

  About the Author

  Sneak Peek

  Wards and Wonders

  Chapter 1

  Lana shared the gnomes’ despair. An impenetrable barrier separated this region of Ahmonell from the rest of the gnome world, and there was no way to break through. The gnomes’ self-appointed queen, Sheamathan—now called S after her defeat—had known this for generations and had managed to keep it from the gnomes, but her sentient spell book, no longer loyal to her, had revealed the truth. The gnomes had suffered so much already, Lana thought bitterly, and now, just when their lives had begun to improve, they faced this new crisis.

  Lana followed Jules and Elias to the throne room, a place she generally avoided. The gray, stone block walls and huge stone columns with capitols shaped like coiled serpents, always gave her the jitters.

  They stood at the foot of the dais examining the throne. Carvings of grotesque creatures, whose eye sockets held gems with malevolent powers, covered every inch.

  “This hideous thing has to go,” Elias said grimly.

  Lana was all for that. She found the throne unsettling. “What are we going to do with it?”

  “Burn it,” Elias said decisively. “Even if we remove every gem, the throne may have infused their powers. According to S, breghlin made the carvings and set the gems in the eye sockets. Rather than handle the throne ourselves, I’ll ask them to dispose of it. It could be dangerous, but in their present mood, I think some will volunteer.”

  “Should we take any gems out first?” Lana asked.

  “I wouldn’t advise it,” Elias said. “You removed gems from the spell book without triggering a ward, but we might not be so lucky again. It would be safer to burn the throne intact and rake the ashes to recover gems.

  Lana wouldn’t argue with that logic. The fiasco with the sentient spell book had made Elias more cautious, and after spending a few weeks at Shadowglade, they had all become wary of wards and booby traps.

  “This is one bonfire I don’t want to miss,” she said as they left the throne room.

  After dinner, a handful of gnomes went to build a bonfire across the drawbridge near the castle’s outer walls. Franklin brought a maraku-drawn cart around, and Elias opened the massive front doors, then met Lana and Jules in the throne room.

  “This is an historic moment,” Elias said, as six muscular breghlin climbed the dais steps and surrounded the throne.

  Lana swallowed, half-expecting the gargoyles on the wall to come to life and kill the breghlin, or a warding spell to incinerate them. Grunting with exertion, S’s former servants lifted the massive throne and carried it uneventfully down the steps.

  Lana let out a long breath, but until the throne was a pile of ash, she wouldn’t completely relax.

  “Let’s watch them load it onto the cart,” Jules said, and she could tell by his expression that he was thoroughly enjoying this.

  Able to walk faster than the breghlin with their burden, they reached the castle’s front steps ahead of them.

  Below, a boisterous crowd of gnomes and breghlin had gathered around the cart like a mob waiting for a hanging.

  The six breghlin, panting heavily, finally reached the front door, and the crowd cheered when they carried the throne down the steps and dumped it onto the cart with a mighty crash.

  Lana and Jules ran down the steps and hurried toward Franklin who stood beside the maraku, arms folded and a satisfied smile on his face. “I never thought I’d live to see this day,” Franklin said, shaking his head.

  His words held a twofold meaning, Lana thought grimly. S had seemed invincible but had finally been defeated. And it was surprising Franklin had lived to see this day. He was human now, but he’d spent twenty-five years as an enchanted bird, and it was a wonder he hadn’t been killed by predators.

  The throne looked far less imposing now that it was laying mournfully on its side, about to be hauled away as trash.

  Elias eyed it with a slight frown. “So far so good.”

  “Let’s hope it will burn,” Lana said. She had learned to take nothing for granted, especially when gems were involved.

  “It should,” Elias said. “I consulted the spell book, and it agreed with this plan.”

  Maybe so, but how much did the spell book know about the throne? And could they trust what it told them? For all they knew, it still had conflicting loyalties.

  “Are we ready?” Franklin asked, jolting her from her thoughts. Elias nodded and Franklin climbed into the cart and snapped the reins. “Ya!”

  The cart pulled away, and in the fading daylight, gems sparkled from the throne.

  Raenihel and a couple guards had remained in the castle, but from what Lana could tell, everyone else was here. The crowd formed a procession behind the cart, following the throne to its doom.

  Once they crossed the drawbridge, Lana could see the bonfire. Orange sparks danced madly in the ascending smoke, as if in gleeful anticipation. “I wish S were here to see this,” she muttered. Elias had been wise to hide S. Many of her former subjects would be tempted to throw her onto the fire along with her throne.

  “It feels like the end of an era,” Jules said. “Her pet pythanium and moat monsters are dead. Her spell book turned against her, and now her throne is about to be burned.”

  Lana slipped her hand into his. “She’s finally getting what she deserves. And the gnomes are better off now, despite being trapped in the Amulet and cut off from the rest of their world.”

  The maraku neared the bonfire, tossing its head nervously, and Franklin reined the cart to a stop.

  The gnomes had made the bonfire with dead trees that had stood in the courtyard. A few pieces waited in reserve on the ground, but the rest had burned down to a thick bed of glowing coals.

  Breghlin and gnomes surged forward and dragged the throne from the cart, then nearly came to blows over who would carry it to the fire.

  The rest, content to be spectators, crowded close, and even though Lana could see over their heads, they blocked most of her view. She knew the throne had landed when a shout went up, accompanied by a shower of sparks.

  “Come on, let’s get a closer look,” she urged Jules. They wove through the crowd and found an opening in the second row. The throne rested on its side. Small flames like grasping fingers reached up, exploring the wood th
at touched the coals. It would take several hours for the throne to burn completely. In the morning, there would be nothing but ashes and lumps of charred wood, and they would recover the surviving gems.

  Someone cried out in alarm, and the crowd began backing away. An elbow jabbed into Lana’s ribs. Someone stepped on her foot. She didn’t know what was wrong until someone shouted, “Look!” and pointed at the sky.

  The smoke was not behaving naturally. It was forming eerie shapes.

  Jules grabbed her hand and pulled her toward the rear of the crowd. She looked frantically about for Elias. He might know what this meant. She saw him coming toward them, pushing his way through the crowd, and when he joined them, she asked, “What’s happening?”

  He watched the sky, his expression more curious than alarmed. “I’m not sure.”

  The smoke patterns were becoming more distinct: birds, lizards, snakes and other creatures, but they were hideous and deformed. That’s when Lana realized what she was seeing—the creatures carved on the throne.

  “S’s abominations,” Elias breathed.

  A tense silence followed, and Jules’s hand tightened around hers.

  “I don’t sense anything menacing in this display, do you?” Elias asked.

  The display was creepy, if not menacing. The semitransparent forms writhed in the air as if they were alive. Their forms were clearer now: pythanium, crocodillos, brontskellers, and others she couldn’t identify. She glanced at Jules and could tell he didn’t know what to make of it, either.

  “Draw on your gem powers,” Elias suggested. “We need to know what’s happening.”

  Jules’s brow furrowed. “I have been, and I’m not sensing any danger, but the smoke images must mean something. Why are they forming?”

  Lana drew infused foresight, and the impressions that came took her by surprise, raising a more important question than why the smoke was forming images of creatures on the throne. She asked hesitantly, “Could there be a connection between the carvings on the throne and the real creatures?”

  “Very interesting. Your insights align with mine.” Elias gave her an appraising look. “The creatures on the throne all had gems for eyes. Does that suggest anything to you?”

  Gems held spectacular powers in this world, and when you found them in an object, they were often there for a reason. “Could the gems in the carvings have something to do with bringing the real creatures to life? I know it’s not the same, but the gems on the spell book’s cover weren’t just ornamental—they gave it sentience.”

  He nodded and looked up at the sky where the dark shapes continued to writhe. “It would not surprise me. S created her monsters with gem powers, using a spell.”

  Jules said, “Maybe the carved images on the throne were part of the process, as well as the gems in their eyes.”

  They lapsed into thoughtful silence.

  The crowd had calmed since there was no sign of any real danger, but they stood back from the fire, speaking in hushed tones. The pungent odor of burning wood hung thick in the air.

  “Let’s take another look at the throne,” she said, and Jules and Elias followed her.

  The fire was slowly doing its work. An arm and a couple legs had burned away; the rest was charred but mostly intact. Two gnomes stepped forward, braving the heat, and shoveled glowing coals onto the throne to hasten its destruction. The crowd cheered and whistled.

  For several minutes, Lana stood watching, enjoying the camaraderie as well as the spectacle. Then she realized something. As the carvings burned away and became less distinct, the smoke creatures were fading. A few had already disappeared.

  “Have you noticed—” Lana broke off when she saw Jules’s distracted expression. She followed his gaze. He was watching Franklin and a group of gnomes on the other side of the bonfire. One was pointing toward the castle’s outer wall, and a few hurried off in that direction.

  “What’s going on over there?” she asked uneasily.

  Jules watched with narrowed eyes. “I don’t know.”

  Franklin saw them looking toward him and motioned for them to come.

  Lana took Elias’s arm. “Come on. Something’s up and we’re going with Franklin to investigate.”

  Jules ran off, and Lana and Elias followed as fast as they could, reaching Franklin just as he was saying to Jules, “You probably couldn’t see it, but there’s a luffow over by the wall.”

  “So, what’s the big deal about that?” Lana asked as they all hurried off. “Luffows aren’t dangerous, right?” She had only seen a luffow skeleton. It was the size of a fox, but unlike any animal from her world. According to Jules, they ate everything from grass to bugs to rodents and had terrible eyesight but a keen sense of smell. S had created them as a food source for carnivorous predators.

  “No, they’re not dangerous,” Franklin said, glancing back at her. “Especially this one.”

  “What’s different about this one?” Jules asked.

  “Wait till you see it.”

  Gnomes and breghlin had gathered around the creature, which was rooting blindly among newly emerging grass and weeds.

  “Fascinating,” Elias said, pushing past everyone.

  Lana could see what Franklin meant about this luffow being harmless. It wasn’t all there. Elias stooped down and put his hand out, and it passed right through.

  A few gnomes got up the courage to touch the luffow, with the same result.

  “How is this possible?” Lana asked. “What’s happening to it?” As she watched in amazement, the luffow became more and more insubstantial. The gnomes whispered among themselves.

  “I’d say it’s losing its reality,” Elias said, stepping back. The gnomes watched silently as the luffow grew fainter. Finally, it was no more than an outline that flickered a few times and then disappeared.

  The smoke images were fading away, and now a real creature had faded away. How very strange. Was it a coincidence or was there a connection? “Could this be happening to all of S’s monsters? Could they all be losing their reality?” Lana asked him, almost afraid to hope.

  “I don’t know what to make of it, but something important is happening.”

  “It would be too good to be true,” Lana said, thinking about the creatures she had seen, both dead and alive. The heads of some had been preserved and mounted as a reminder of the horrors the gnomes had suffered. “Imagine—no mutant insects, no crocodillos, no pythanium—what a different world this would be.”

  “We’ll know soon enough, and if the creatures really are disappearing, it couldn’t be better timing,” Jules said. “The gnome clans need to travel to find one another, and we need to reach the Amulet barrier.”

  “We got lucky before, guessing S’s password and finding the ommort mirkstone, but that would be nothing compared to burning S’s throne and finding out that, unbeknown to us, that destroys her creatures.”

  Elias smiled at her. “That would indeed be a strange twist of fate.”

  “The gnomes deserve a few lucky breaks,” Jules said, folding his arms.

  Elias glanced around and then lowered his voice. “While everyone is occupied here, Raenihel and I plan to move S from her temporary Tree Home to one nearer his clan. I should be back in a couple hours.”

  “Is the rest of his clan staying the night?” Jules asked.

  “No. Franklin has arranged for carts to drive them home. We need to be on our way before they go.”

  Lana said, “Tell S we’ll send a housewarming gift later—a charred piece of her throne.”

  Elias chuckled and walked away.

  Raucous laughter pulled Lana’s attention back to the bonfire. A few breghlin had started to circle the fire in what looked like a conga dance. Soon, more joined in, but the gnomes stood back, either not familiar with the dance or finding it beneath their dignity.

  Each dancer laid his or her left hand on the shoulder of the person in front, and with the right hand in a fist, made three circles at waist height and then pu
nched skyward. Footwork was nothing complicated, just a bouncing march. As the line lengthened, the shouting and laughter grew louder.

  “Come on,” Lana said, tugging on Jules’s arm. “It looks like fun.” For a moment, she thought he would refuse, but then he laughed and nodded.

  The breghlin opened a space for them, grinning broadly. Lana called to a group of gnomes, “Come on!”

  By the time she and Jules had circled the fire twice, most of the gnomes had joined in. Dignity forgotten, they danced, shouted, and laughed.

  Franklin came toward them, and Lana yelled, “Hey, why aren’t you dancing?”

  He shouted back, “I’ve been busy! Have everyone on the terrace in half an hour. I brought up kegs of fialazza, beer, and wine.”

  “Great idea!” She gave him a double fist pump and kept dancing.

  Chapter 2

  Franklin did a great job of hosting an impromptu party. Torches lit the terrace, and lightgems twinkled from within the arbor. It seemed fitting to hold the post-bonfire party here where Sheamathan had spent so many leisure hours.

  With all the extra visitors these days, food stores were low, but there was ample fialazza, wine, and beer. Voices and laughter drifted on the cool, night air. Under normal conditions, gnomes banded together, and breghlin did the same, but tonight Lana saw breghlin and gnomes speaking together and laughing over their defeated queen’s misfortunes.

  It was well after midnight before the party finally started to break up. Breghlin and gnomes went their separate ways, and Lana said good night to Franklin, Jules, and Elias, and followed the breghlin servers back to their dorm.